2022 Volume 83 Pages 3-33
This paper examines the history of the requisition and return of the “Rikugunsho Dainikki,” consisting of official army documents compiled by the Army Ministry, and how it is stored in Japan, to obtain the fullest possible picture of the situation with the return.
During World War II, the Army Ministry conducted evacuations of its documents to protect official papers from war damage. After the defeat, the General Headquarters of the Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces（GHQ）ordered the recovery and restoration of the Dainikki and other documents stored in the underground warehouse of the Army Ministry. The GHQ requisitioned all of them and transferred them to the United States. After Japan’s independence, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs investigated the whereabouts of the requisitioned documents in the United States and repeatedly negotiated with the US government for their return. As a result, the US returned the Japanese Army’s historical papers to Japan in several batches over a period of time. The returned Dainikki and other documents are now in the archives of the National Institute for Defense Studies and the National Archives of Japan.
Based on the above history, this paper compares the general catalog of the requisitioned Dainikki and other documents with their storage situation to clarify the total numbers of returned and unreturned materials. Furthermore, the paper looks at the missing parts of the collection in the National Institute for Defense Studies, identifies the materials stored in the National Archive of Japan.
